Jul 18, 2017

No Thirst For Local News

In a recent post, I noted that The Morning Call seems to be lowering their firewall between news and opinion in regard to Mayor Ed Pawlowski. On what planet have I been stranded? Firewall is a historic term from the dinosaur age. It no longer exists in news, whether print or broadcast. Quite to the contrary, the media seems to wear their bias as a badge of conviction.

Here at the molovinsky on allentown blog, being a completely unmonetized endeavor, I can afford to strive for objectivity. I even proclaim myself as non-partisan. Truth be told, it would be very difficult to monetize the blog. There is less than a thirst for news in this community.

Another truth be told, I'm interacting with less and less people. I now only attend meetings to advocate for something or other. Since our esteemed elected officials actually do very little deliberating at the public meetings, attendance is becoming less and less productive.

However, I do survey people at the diners and grocery markets. Their knowledge or interest in local decisions is minimal. Acutally, they're perplexed why people even concern themselves with such matters.

8 comments:

Now City Council is getting ancy for the Federal Attorney to do something, anything with regards to Mayor Pawlowski. Apparently they believe that this investigation is a “disservice to the citizens of Allentown.” More than likely, as they passed a resolution asking for his resignation, they're tired of waiting for any indictments to be issued.

The fact remains that it appears this investigation has run out of gas, to the chagrin of many in government. To the average Allentonian who simply goes to work and cares for his family, this is nothing more than a political issue that really doesn't mean a lot to them. There is no woman involved in a sex scandal here, there is no dead body that Ed may have murdered. It's a big shoulder shrug and a "so what".

All this while Allentown is getting national recognition for the revitalization of a dying city

Allentown is not a cohesive community and there are even very few cohesive subgroups within the larger non-cohesive community. There are very few what we used to call "allentonians" left(those who were born and raised here as were their parents),and those such as myself who arrived from somewhere else, generally have less of a stake in the city as they tend to believe they will one day move on again. Then we have the waves of people forced out of NYC and the its surrounding areas due to either gentrification or high crime there. These folk are likely to move several times a year within the city before eventually moving on further west. The truth is Allentown and its residents no longer have an affinity for or allegiance to the city. We all just live here. This and reasons to do with a general apathy to civics in general explains the lack of interest in city affairs. And tells me Ed could easily win re-election.

city council said that the feds should either indict or exonerate, they should be careful of what they wish for.

"recognition of the revitalization". I see many new buildings, but no revitalization. one would think that there would have been more revitalization by now. perhaps it will take two $billion in new buildings.

Mr Armstrong, you're likely correct as many of the people I graduated with from William Allen have either moved out of the area, or like me, live outside of the city. Most of the people that actually live IN Allentown these days are people tho have migrated here for one reason or another.

It's like when I went to school in Philadelphia and the years I lived and worked in the suburbs in lower Montgomery County. I really didn't pay much attention to the politics or news from Philadelphia, or Bryn Mawr where we lived. It was where we lived and worked. One of the reasons we moved closer to Allentown was because it is home and whee both of our parents still live in the West End.

I'm sure that those who live in the city now feel the same as I did. Allentown is a place to live and where they have jobs. But it's not home and really don't care one way or another for the shenanigans that go on in City Hall. It's just so much noise.

And as far as City Council asking for the Feds to "speed things up", I suspect you're also correct Mr Molovinski. Be careful what you wish for, they may get what they don't want.

With the consolidation of ownership of most local newspapers & TV/Radio stations across the United States, there is very little resources devoted to local news. Content is national, with several regional zoned sections, but not generally specific to a given town. Advertising is the only real local input. This nourishes the citizenry apathy regarding local affairs.

It isn't fair to cite Allentownians as especially indifferent; this is the norm in most cities, outside of very large (600,00+ metro urban cities)ones. Even in the 1950 "glory" era, TV was all out of Phila. with hardly ever a story originating about Allentown, and local radio was all music and national syndicated broadcast entertainment shows. Of course, there was a locally owned then twice daily paper, The Morning Call/Evening Chronicle, but the purely "local" articles were more about high school sports and companies coming & going. There just has never been a real thirst for "local" hard news.